"The place God calls you to is the place where your deepest gladness and the world's deepest hunger meet" - Fredrick Buechner (in Wishful Thinking)."Every child should be well born, well fed, well taught, well housed and well treated."Maude Riley, Alberta Council on Child and Family Welfare 1923"Each of us feels that we are just a drop in the ocean, but the ocean would be less without that missing drop." --Mother Teresa

Diane, I love the quote on Penn's profile of why he lends: "I want to do god's work, because there's no god to do it." Now that's an atheist I can work shoulder-to-shoulder with. My sentiments exactly! Except for the "no god" part, that is. =) I would say for myself that I want to do God's work because we're his hands here on earth, because he does his work through us. But, you know, Penn's idea works too, for those with his predilections.

As an engineer, I love the poem "The Sons of Martha" by Rudyard Kipling.

The sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited that good part;But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother of the careful soul and the troubled heart.And because she lost her temper once, and because she was rude to the Lord her Guest,Her Sons must wait upon Mary's Sons, world without end, reprieve, or rest.

It is their care in all the ages to take the buffet and cushion the shock.It is their care that the gear engages; it is their care that the switches lock.It is their care that the wheels run truly; it is their care to embark and entrain,Tally, transport, and deliver duly the Sons of Mary by land and main.

They say to mountains, "Be ye removed." They say to the lesser floods, "Be dry."Under their rods are the rocks reproved-they are not afraid of that which is high.Then do the hill-tops shake to the summit-then is the bed of the deep laid bare,That the Sons of Mary may overcome it, pleasantly sleeping and unaware.

They finger death at their gloves' end where they piece and repiece the living wires.He rears against the gates they tend: they feed him hungry behind their fires.Early at dawn, ere men see clear, they stumble into his terrible stall,And hale him forth a haltered steer, and goad and turn him till evenfall.

To these from birth is Belief forbidden; from these till death is Relief afar.They are concerned with matters hidden - under the earthline their altars are-The secret fountains to follow up, waters withdrawn to restore to the mouth,And gather the floods as in a cup, and pour them again at a city's drouth.

They do not preach that their God will rouse them a little before the nuts work loose.They do not teach that His Pity allows them to drop their job when they damn-well choose.As in the thronged and the lighted ways, so in the dark and the desert they stand,Wary and watchful all their days that their brethren's day may be long in the land.

Raise ye the stone or cleave the wood to make a path more fair or flat - Lo, it is black already with blood some Son of Martha spilled for that!Not as a ladder from earth to Heaven, not as a witness to any creed,But simple service simply given to his own kind in their common need.

And the Sons of Mary smile and are blessed - they know the Angels are on their side.They know in them is the Grace confessed, and for them are the Mercies multiplied.They sit at the Feet - they hear the Word - they see how truly the Promise runs.They have cast their burden upon the Lord, and - the Lord He lays it on Martha's Sons!

Kipling is so great! The story of Martha and Mary in the bible always puzzled me. It seemed unjust, somehow. In like manner, most people don't truly see the service of all the people who make our modern comforts of civilization possible. It reminds me of motherhood, in fact, in the way we take it for granted, yet it nurtures and nourishes us. Kipling's poem about it is just grand, I think. It seems to make the bible story make sense to me, and I know it makes me feel proud and privileged to be an engineer. =)

"The place God calls you to is the place where your deepest gladness and the world's deepest hunger meet" - Fredrick Buechner (in Wishful Thinking)."Every child should be well born, well fed, well taught, well housed and well treated."Maude Riley, Alberta Council on Child and Family Welfare 1923"Each of us feels that we are just a drop in the ocean, but the ocean would be less without that missing drop." --Mother Teresa